"One of THE best fighting games available. Yes, even beating out Ehrgeiz!"

As the sequel to Bloody Roar, BR2 comes back and with a vengeance. It is possibly
one of THE best fighting games available. Even beating out Ehrgeiz! This game
is running is 60 frames per second, even with tons of effects on at the same time
including the afterimage on and causing no slow down or drop of frame rate.

The game has several modes this time around, including Arcade, Survival, Watch,
and Custom mode. The arcade mode is basically the same as from the first game,
only that now, it says that there are eight rounds, but if you beat the eighth
round and without continuing during the rest of the arcade mode, you get to the
special stage with Shen Long. The survival is what it sounds like. Watch mode
is where you get to select any available characters and watch them fight. This
mode helps to see who is the overall best character. A new mode to this game is
the Story mode. The Story mode is actually essential and not just something that
was added in. In tells the story of how they got their beast powers, where they
were from, what type of things that are going on in each characters lives. The
Story is however text written. No voice acting. But the pictures are the best
pictures that I have seen in any game. Plus you can go in the Options menu and
look at all 95 pictures up close and watch all 3-4 movies available in the game.

While although the game has a bunch of high stand points, it does lack in some things
that made the first game great. These are the Turbo button that you could use
when you were in beast form. There isn't this in the BR2, but to make up for this,
Hudson has added that when you transform, your beast instincts take over which
lets you jump higher, move faster, and take out more damage, plus adding a whole
new slew of moves and combos. Also, probably one of the best features in the game,
is the Beast Drive move. This is sort of like a Street Fighter Alpha moves that
takes out a ton of damage when connects and can only be used in beast form and when
your gauge is full. But it is really cool to see. Another thing taken out is that
you can't use the side step feature in the Arcade mode, but rather only the Custom
mode. While although these modes are the same, you still want to use it in other
modes such as Survival and Story mode, but you can't, but the computer can, which
makes them have an advantage over you.

The extra abilities that you earn can only be used in the Custom mode. I wish
you could do an entry like in Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the other modes. ALso,
when you earn these extra abilities, the computer can use them to. What's up
with that? It still makes you even with the computer. The idea should have been
to give you a slight advantage. The game NEVER gives you a slight advantage even
after you earn the extra abilities. Except for this one. The Any Cancel Point.
This is an extra ability that allows you to create your own custom combos. It
is a really great feature, it allows you to tamper with the combos and let you
make your own longer ones. It is easily a great feature for both true fighters
and the button smashers.

All in all, the game is still a must have. But the fact that all extra abilities
can be used by the cpu, is a major disapointment, which makes you wonder why
have them at all. I now find myself playing both Bloody Roar 2 and Street
Fighter Alpha 3 equally. Mainly because one is 3D and the other is 2D.

Overall: 8
Graphics: 9
Gameplay: 9
Control: 10-due to the ease of pulling off combos
Lastability: 8
Time to complete: about a half hour per character(if you are moderately good)11 characters=5-7 hours
Innovation: 7
Presentation:8